Marshall County Babe Ruth

[Tigercatchr]

I agree with you about how weak Babe Ruth is getting because of teams loosing kids to travel teams.I remember 13 yr old year(2000) at state in Elezebethon. Brentwood had a dominating pitcher who threw in the game aginst us that ended up 2-1 after 8 innings of play.He showed a lot of potential and was a big worry to us the following year but turned out he had joined a traveling team.I think you get more exposure on the traveling team level as well as a better competion.But you can't compare it to Babe Ruth because traveling teams can pull in kids from across the state or better yet nation and yes I agree the coaches are some of the best in the nation but about them having the best attitudes, I would have to question that.If you saw any of the L.L World series you might have seen that kid taunting the other team as he came down the third base line. I think it has a lot to do with parents pressing there kids to play this kind of ball and that kind of ball and moving them around until they find the team with the best winning program. all the while instilling the winning aspect, not what baseball was truely played for.And yes these kids do work hard and deserve all the credit they can get but I think it can sometimes become to much and to big for kids to be worrying about it at this age.

[Tony]

I didn't mean for the good attitudes to go with the traveling teams. I think the BR teams have the best attitudes because of the local league play. Players don't want to show a bad attitude when maybe thier best friend is on the other team. Local leagues bring out the best most of the time. Nothing like knowing your competion and maybe seeing them every day at school, church, etc.. Travel teams see their compo. sometimes only on the field. Not many family members get to follow their travel teams. In local league, your whole family may be their night after night.